Post navigation

Three Free Tools for Saving Time on Social Media

One morning I opened up my Facebook Page, determined to share something encouraging or funny or at least somewhat valuable and I stared at the blank “status update” window for about five minutes. I started typing a few times only to quickly delete the text and resume my writer’s block. Then, I did what any productive professional would do – I spent the next 20 minutes browsing through my feed hoping to be inspired or, at the very least, distracted. Eventually, I closed my browser without having left a comment. And I got to work. Has that ever happened to you? I think we put a lot of pressure on ourselves because we’re told that social media is a wonderful tool for business and that we need to make sure we’re active online. But sometimes, we’re just not in the mood to be social. Other times, we’re perfectly happy being social, spending hours mindlessly watching pet videos and liking someecards when we should be working…or spending time with our families. But we get swept up in all the smiling faces and we can’t seem to click away. (It happened to me twice while writing this blog post!)

That’s why I use a few tools to help me organize my time on social media. I’m not trying to be sneaky by pre-scheduling updates. Instead, I’m trying to be productive so that I’ll be able to spend my time online having real, live conversations with people – not stressing over what to write. And I’m getting help sifting through all the distracting (but entertaining!) messages so I can concentrate on the ones I want to read and comment on.

I rely on these three free social media management tools to help me better prioritize my time online:

Hootsuite. I started using this tool to pre-schedule Twitter posts. For example, when a friend has a book launch I want to support, I use it to pre-schedule a series of tweets at the time of her launch. That way, I can write them and schedule them when I’m “in the mood,” and they will appear during her launch without me having to think about it again.

Once I got familiar with Hootsuite, I learned you can use it for other channels such as Facebook and LinkedIn. So I can pre-schedule a bunch of updates on several channels all from one dashboard. And I discovered that Hootsuite streams are a fabulous way to keep track of conversations I follow online – I can easily se who is sharing information for “mompreneurs” and what my friends from a recent conference are talking about. There are probably a billion other features to Hootsuite that I have yet to uncover, but I already know it’s an invaluable tool and a huge time saver!

Buffer. Let’s say you don’t want to pre-schedule a bunch of messages to be published on a specific date and time. But you do want to have a regular online presence – even when you’re on vacation or intentionally unplugged. Well, you can fill up your Buffer queue with interesting articles, quotes, images and other messages and set them to be published according to a schedule you create. You could tell Buffer to publish something once a day, three times a day or more. One of my clients uses Buffer to schedule LinkedIn posts once a week. She spends about 30 minutes every few months gathering interesting articles to share and adding them to Buffer. Then, she doesn’t have to worry if she forgets to log into LinkedIn and share something – although she often does that in addition to the pre-scheduled posts.

Feedly. I learned about this one from Michael Hyatt and he says he uses it to “forage for his tribe.” It’s brilliant, actually. The way it works is that you can follow a bunch of your favorite blogs in Feedly on your desktop, laptop or phone. And you can organize them into categories (e.g., business, fashion, food, spiritual, fitness, parenting, etc.). Then you can spend 15 minutes a day browsing through all of your favorite blogs (all in one place at one time — instead of opening dozens of emails or searching a bunch of websites). If you find something interesting, you can Buffer it to share with your friends later. Genius!

Want more details? I love these tools so much that I created a webinar demo about them with my friend Kelly Garrett of Ekcetera Design and Marketing. We spent more than an hour explaining how we use these tools and some other more advanced tools. We went step-by-step through the process, sharing our computer screens so you can see exactly how these platforms work. We also talked about how to make sure you’re interacting “live” on social media – and not just prescheduling messages all the time like a robot. And we discussed several things to consider before hiring someone else to do your social media.

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Post navigation

Become a Member for Free!

Are you ready to create a profitable business that supports faith and family?

Grab your Christian Mompreneur Toolkit today!

We will never send you spam or sell your contact information. We promise!

First Name *

Email *

Welcome to the International Christian Mompreneur Network! I'm founder and president Theresa Ceniccola and I'm on a mission to encourage and equip moms to experience the blessings of running a business while raising a family. In 1994, I discovered that I could get paid to write -- on my own schedule...in my own home...while wearing yoga pants and fuzzy slippers. Now, more than 20 years later, I am blessed with amazing clients and a steady workflow as a professional writer and marketing consultant. Here at the International Christian Mompreneur Network, we inspire and empower other Christian moms who want to build or grow a profitable business that supports faith and family. If that sounds like something you intend for your life, then become a member for free and grab your Christian Mompreneur Toolkit today!

Featured In

Testimonials

"Theresa brings collaboration, expertise and motivation to my wife and her business!"

My wife Kelly has been working with Theresa for over 3 years. While I was originally skeptical as to the value of any coaching services I soon realized my misunderstanding. I have always worked within an organization. One thing that is taken for granted in any organization is the opportunity to get input from other knowledgeable people and to see how an idea can change through collaboration. Theresa adds that source of good ideas and collaboration to Kelly’s business and brings significant knowledge and experience in so many areas.

The softer side of Theresa’s coaching that cannot be overlooked is that of motivation. Have you ever tried to motivate your wife to greater business success by telling her exactly how she should solve a problem? I have . . . it doesn’t work very well. However, my experience with Kelly and Theresa has been that Theresa is able to provide encouragement and motivation to Kelly that has so much more impact to her operations than I am able to provide. Theresa intimately understands the challenges that women entrepreneurs face. This understanding and accountability help her cut through the day to day busy work and focus on the areas that really help someone grow their business. I can’t recommend Theresa highly enough. Her services are not free, but they have value far beyond their cost.

When I hired Theresa to conduct a website evaluation for me, I knew I was asking her to critique ‘my baby’ – the site I had created myself! So I was a little nervous but I knew I would value her input. I also knew I had limitations with the program I chose and my own ability to spend time on it while taking care of my five kids. But I felt very comfortable with Theresa’s open and honest way of communicating. Her assessment of the website and suggestions for improvement truly helped me shift my thinking. Her insight was eye opening and valuable – yet she didn’t put pressure on me to change everything right now! Theresa juggles work and life just the way I do – and it was very reassuring to work with her.